Writer-director Jeff Nichols is having quite a busy year. In March, the visionary, genre-jumping filmmaker released Midnight Special, a mix of '70s road-picture suspense and '80s sci-fi awe. And this fall he'll release Loving, his Cannes-acclaimed romantic drama about the 1967 Supreme Court case that pitted an interracial married couple against the state of Virginia. You can watch the first trailer above, but be warned: If you're viewing this over lunch, you might sniffle in your salad.
Loving reunites Nichols with Midnight Special star Joel Edgerton, who plays Richard Loving, a soft-spoken white construction worker who pledges to build a house for Mildred, his African-American wife-to-be (played by *Preacher'*s Ruth Negga). The two marry in Virginia in 1958, but their relationship raises the attention and the ire of the local police, who arrest the Lovings, setting in place a court battle that would stretch on for nearly a decade. Michael Shannon—who's starred in all of Nichols' films so far—plays a Life magazine photographer who documents their lives, while comic performer Nick Kroll co-stars as the Lovings' lawyer. "Tell the judge I love my wife," Richard Loving says at one point during the trailer, and if that doesn't get you a bit verklempt, you're either made of stronger stuff than we are, or you need to turn the volume up on your headphones. We'll all weep quietly together in the theater when Loving opens Nov. 4th.
Pause at: 0:55 to be very, very afraid. 2:25 to see a more-serious-than-usual Nick Kroll. 2:28 to start the waterworks.
Essential Quote: "Tell the judge I love my wife."—Richard Loving (Edgerton)
